Wesley meets with a man named Emil in a warehouse and is displeased to be talking to a middleman when he had expected to meet with the distributor. Fred appears with a highly specialized rifle that has been custom-made by Wolfram & Hart and details the specs for Emil. Wesley notes that the whole shipment of guns is ready for delivery, but refuses to do any business until he meets the distributor. Emil starts to give him the name of the distributor when the three are attacked. Wesley, leaving Fred unarmed, shoots and kills Emil's bodyguards. As the fight intensifies, Angel arrives and kills Wesley's assailant with a chain. He gets a jolt of electricity, and when he pulls of the guy's mask, he sees a metal plate instead of a face. Wesley realizes that Fred has been injured in the attack, and Angel is angry at Wesley for putting her in danger.
Back at Wolfram & Hart, Angel blasts Wesley for putting Fred in danger as Eve tries to calm him down. Wesley argues that he needed Fred there to explain the weaponry to Emil; he chose her because she wouldn't make Emil suspicious, and she would be able to explain the weapon convincingly. Angel calls this a "reckless decision" and says that Wesley has to clear things like this with Angel. Eve wonders if Angel is really still mad at Wesley for taking Connor. Angel argues that Wesley was trying to do the right thing. "Are you worried about the next time Wesley betrays you trying to do 'the right thing'?" Eve asks.
With her arm in a sling, Fred reunites with Wesley, explaining that she had been injured by a grappling hook. She tells him that they're taking the cyborg apart in the lab to learn more about it. Wesley apologizes for getting her hurt, but she blames herself. He says that he should have protected her and she blasts him for being condescending. "Stop trying to be valiant," she tells him. "You're coming off like a self-pitying child." Wesley looks past her and greets his father; she thinks he's being sarcastic, but his father, Roger Wyndam-Pryce, is actually there. Fred meets him, then rushes off, embarrassed at her outburst.
Roger tells Wesley that they have to discuss some business - now that the Watchers Council has been destroyed, the other former Watchers, including Roger, want to reform the Council. Roger has come to assess whether Wesley should be invited back. When Wesley says he's not interested, Roger replies that he has the chance to clear the Wyndam-Pryce name. Wesley repeats that has no intention of leaving Wolfram & Hart, which Roger insists is nothing but an evil law firm despite Wesley's protestation that they are serious about doing good work. Lorne passes by, discussing movie business, and meets Roger, who's sarcastic about the effect an entertainment division will have on fighting evil. Gunn arrives to tell Wesley that the lab wants him to come look at the cyborg from the previous night. Wesley reluctantly invites Roger to tag along.
In the lab, Fred tells Angel that the body housing the cyborg may have once been human. As they discuss the blending of man and machine, Spike is interested, noting that sex with robots is more common than people think. Fred wants to access the cyborg's memory base so that they can trace its previous actions and possibly discover its purpose. Wesley introduces his father, who notes that he and Spike had met in Vienna in 1963 as Spike was slaughtering an orphanage. Spike looks uncomfortable and asks how Mr. Wyndam-Pryce has been.
Fred asks Wesley to decipher some symbols found on the cyborg, and Roger reveals that Wesley was Head Boy back at the Academy (noting, however, that the pickings were a bit slim that year), and Spike is delighted at the revelation. As Wesley begins to work, he accidentally activates a bomb. Wesley orders Fred to get as far away from the building as possible, announcing that he'll stay back and try to defuse the bomb. Suddenly, the bomb stops, thanks to Roger, who had more accurately translated the symbols.
Angel wants to know what happened, and Spike gleefully reports that Wesley was Head Boy at the Academy. Fred and Wesley explain the situation to Angel and tell him that Roger defused the bomb. Angel recognizes that Wesley is rattled by Roger's presence and notes how difficult father-son relationships can be. They discuss a report of assassins who might also be cyborgs; Wesley finds it interesting that the robots are fighting evil beings, possibly indicating that they are good guys. Later, after Roger tells Fred stories from Wesley's childhood, Wesley asks for his father's continuing assistance in dealing with the cyborg threat.
Once they're alone, Roger asks about Wesley's feelings for Fred, but he doesn't want to chat about his love life. He mentions that his last girlfriend was murdered and he had to chop her up, at which point his father, thinking Wesley is being sarcastic, gives up on the conversation. Wesley shows Roger the special Wolfram & Hart reference books, which Roger thinks are dangerous and could attract evil thieves.
Up on the roof, a bunch of cyborgs drop out of a helicopter. Eve gets into an elevator and is joined by Spike, who has noticed her watching him and wants to know why. He thinks that there's more to her than she's letting on, and she accuses him of the same. Spike wonders why Wolfram & Hart is keeping him connected to the amulet that brought him back, since it was intended for Angel. Eve replies that he can't assume it was intended for Angel. The lights suddenly go out and Spike yells that Pavayne will never take him to hell, eliciting a strange look from Eve.
Gunn tells Angel that they may have lost contact with security. The cyborgs infiltrate and start fighting. A cyborg heads to Wesley's office, where Wesley keeps his father from fighting it. Roger is upset about this and notes that the cyborg went straight for the books. They gather up the books and head through a secret vault, where Roger allows that Wesley handled the cyborg well. He then knocks Wesley out and speaks into a communications device: "Phase one complete. Begin phase two."
Angel, Gunn, and some others fight cyborgs in the lobby as Wesley regains consciousness in the secret vault. Back in his lobby, he sees that the cyborg he fought earlier is still alive. Fred runs into Roger, who says that Wesley went up to the roof to investigate something and asked him to tell Angel. Fred offers to take him to Angel. In his office, Wesley tortures the cyborg for information, demanding to know what Roger is up to. In the lobby, Angel and Gunn keep fighting and are joined by Spike, who is able to concentrate long enough to hit the cyborg attacking Gunn. Roger and Fred arrive and tell Angel to meet Wesley on the roof; Angel and Roger head up.
Once they arrive, Angel realizes that Wesley isn't there. Roger uses the wand that he took from W&H's vaults on Angel. Wesley arrives and holds a gun on Roger, concluding that Roger is removing Angel's free will so that Angel will be his slave. He accuses his father of ordering the cyborg attack in order to smuggle in a weapon. Fred comes up to the roof as Roger blasts Wesley for working for Angel when he knows who he is. Wesley taunts his father, insinuating that Roger fears Wesley is better than him.
As a helicopter arrives to extract Roger, he demands the wand, informing Wesley that he will kill him for it if he needs to. Wesley threatens to drop the wand, which will break it and return Angel's will to him. Roger tries to threaten Fred's life by pointing his gun at her, but Wesley immediately shoots Roger without a second's hesitation. Wesley is sickened and horrified by what has just happened, and even more shocked when Roger's body is racked with electrical charges, revealing him to actually be a cyborg.
Later that night, Wesley and Angel discuss the cyborgs and wonder why they were after Angel. Wesley says that they must have crossed someone when they took over Wolfram & Hart. Angel says that others see them as weak, but Wesley corrects him, noting that they see Wesley as weak, which is why they targeted him. Angel says Wesley isn't weak - he does what he has to protect people and do what he knows is right. Wesley is disturbed that the Roger cyborg knew him so well. Angel points out that it had access to the Watchers Council files, which would have provided it plenty of information. He tries to connect with Wesley by reminding him that when he first became a vampire, he really did kill his father. Wesley says this is a little different.
On his way out of Angel's office, Wesley passes Spike, who says that when he first became a vampire, he killed his mother. Wesley, exhausted, wants no more details. He goes to his office and Fred stops by. Wesley asks her to please not tell him about how she killed her parents. She gives him a funny look and reminds him that it's not like he really killed his father - part of him must have known that it wasn't really him. Wesley says that, in fact, he had been positive that it was his father.
Fred notes that Wesley did what he had to do when 'Roger' was threatening Wesley's friends. Wesley looks at Fred and tells her that 'Roger' had been threatening her. He reiterates that his father pointed a gun at her and so he shot him. Fred and Wesley stare at each other until Knox interrupts, offering to take Fred home. Wesley tells her to go. Once he's alone, he calls his parents in England, just to see how they are. His relationship with his father is unchanged.
Tropes
- Aborted Arc: This episode seems to set up the possibility of heroic groups opposing Team Angel because of their new alliance with Wolfram & Hart. Apart from some tensions with the Scooby Gang, this is the only time it actually causes a problem.
- Actor Allusion: The reference to Roger in Vienna, Austria is likely a reference to Roy Dotrice's portrayal of Leopold Mozart in Amadeus (where most of the film occurs). In the film, Dotrice portrayed Leopold as a disapproving, humorless, subservient-to-the-status-quo and commanding father who haunts his genius son's life and is strongly critical of the company his son keeps. This mirrors the relationship between Roger and Wesley. Both Roger and Leopold are implied to be visiting their sons as inanimate objects and impostors. Wesley believed that the robot was his father when he shot him and feels guilt despite it not really being his father. Il Commendatore, who resembles Leopold's party mask, is portrayed as coming back from the grave as a statue to take the lecherous Don Giovanni (who is compared to Wolfgang by Salieri) to Hell. Salieri then uses Leopold's party mask to act as an impostor while commissioning the Requiem Mass.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us / Is It Always Like This?: The ninja cyborgs attack Wolfram & Hart.Roger: Does this happen often around here?
- Actually a Doombot: A cyborg uses a Glamour to imitate Wesley's father. When the cyborg threatens Fred, Wesley shoots it dead, revealing its true nature. Unlike most cases of this trope, the duplicate was not operating on behalf of the original.
- Anti Anti Christ: Roger says that Angel is "more dangerous to mankind than you realize. [snip] He's a puppet. He always has been. To the Powers That Be, to Wolfram & Hart."
- Arms Dealer: Emil is an underworld weapons dealer. Wesley had previously commissioned him to create a multiweapon that was hidden under his sleeves. He's acting as a middleman for an arms distributor, planning on infiltrating Wolfram & Hart.
- Backhanded Compliment: Roger Wyndam-Pryce to his son all the time.Roger: Oh, the Academy didn't make him Head Boy for nothing. (Glasses Pull) Mind you, as I recall, the pickings were a bit slim that year.
- The one time Roger does give Wesley a proper compliment, it's to get Wesley's guard down so he can knock him out.
- Bookcase Passage: Wesley keeps a vault for his more dangerous artifacts behind a sliding bookcase.
- Brick Joke: "Sex with robots is more common than you think." This comment is funnier if you know Spike had a Buffy Sex Bot built for him in BtVS "Intervention".
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Roger Wyndam-Price met Spike years before whilst Spike was slaughtering an orphanage in Vienna.Roger: ...killed two of my men before you escaped.Spike: Oh [beat] How have you been?
- Call-Back:
- Wesley tortures the cyborg the same way he did the bookie in "The Ring" or the junkie girl in "Release".
- In "The Prodigal" Darla says to Angelus that killing his father will not stop his need for his approval. Likewise Wesley tries to reconnect with his father with a phone call to England after 'killing' him.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Wesley finally vents some bile toward his father as the pair engage in Gunpoint Banter. Roger blasts Wesley for constantly failing him and working for Angel when he knows all the evil he's done. Wesley in turn taunts his father, insinuating that Roger always belittled him because he feared that Wesley would outshine him.
- Chain Pain: Favorite weapon of the ninja cyborgs.
- Commercial Break Cliffhanger: Wesley is fiddling with the device inside the cyborg when it starts beeping.Roger: (resigned) What did you just do?Wesley: Unless I'm very much mistaken, I've just activated the bomb.
- Continuity Nod:
- Emil turns out to be the man who built Wesley's collapsible wrist-swords in Season 4.
- Angel already knows Wesley was Head Boy because he mentioned it in "Spin the Bottle".
- Angel comments on father/son relationships being difficult (a reference to both Connor and his own problematic relationship with his father) and mentions killing his father after becoming a vampire.
- Spike thinks Pavayne has returned to take him to Hell when the lights go out ("Hell Bound").
- Wesley tells his father that he dismembered his previous girlfriend. This was Lilah Morgan in "Salvage", whom Wesley wrongly assumed had been killed by a vampire.
- Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind: Roger saving Angel. However it's just a means of gaining his trust.
- Deadpan Snarker: Naturally as a former Watcher, Roger is fully trained in the art of snark.Of course, we're in Los Angeles. We have to talk about our feelings.
- Death Seeker: Wesley activating the cyborg's self-destruct device to force it to talk, and Wesley prepared to let his father shoot him, knowing that the Staff of Devosynn will be smashed when it hits the ground. If he's not actively seeking death, the presence of his father certainly doesn't help convince Wesley that his life is worth much.
- Depleted Phlebotinum Shells:Fred: We replaced the delivery system with a Bylantine energy charge, eliminating the need for conventional ammunition.
- Dysfunction Junction: Spoofed.Wesley: If you're here to tell me about how you killed your parents... perhaps it could wait for another time.
Fred: What? No. They're fine. - Facepalm: Wesley's reaction when Lorne comes up and starts talking to his dad.
- Foreshadowing:
- Spike suspects that Eve has something to do with why he's Not Quite Dead.
- Roger says Angel is just a puppet. That becomes literally true in "Smile Time".
- Freudian Excuse: Wesley's daddy issues are on full display, and Angel's experience with both sides of a troubled father/son relationship is alluded to.
- The Ghost: The real Roger Wyndam-Pryce.
- Girls with Guns: Fred starts assembling a rifle.Fred: What we've got here is a modification of the TS-113 Sniper Rifle. We've altered its targeting and firing mechanisms to fit the parameters you gave us. Scope works along amplified thermal wavelengths.Emil: God... You are making me so hot right now.Fred: Wow. Turned on by a woman holding an enormous gun. What a surprise.
- Give Me a Sword: Wesley throws a sword from his Wall of Weapons to his father so Roger can fight a cyborg.
- Gratuitous Ninja: The Cyborg variety which blow up if you try to examine them.
- Gunpoint Banter: Wesley is exchanging a mutual "The Reason You Suck" Speech with his father at gunpoint, causing the latter to comment sarcastically, "Of course, we're in Los Angeles. We have to talk about our feelings."
- Guns Akimbo: Fred gets annoyed when Wesley uses his twin .45's for a cool Slow Motion Leap and Fire instead of giving one to her.
- Heroic BSoD: Wesley after killing "Roger". He's clearly still feeling it by the end of the episode.
- How Did You Know? I Didn't: Wesley is wracked with guilt over how he shot a cyborg he believed to be his father. Fred tells him not to worry, as deep down he must have realised Roger wasn't real. Wesley however says that he didn't know.
- Humor Dissonance (In-Universe): Angel is glowering at Wes for nearly blowing up the entire building.Angel: What happened?
Spike: (jumping in front of Wes) I can explain. Apparently, when Percy here was younger, he was known as "Head Boy"!
Angel: (Beat) Right, I already knew that.
Spike: Well, I have nothing else to report. - I Need to Go Iron My Dog: Fred excusing herself from Wesley meeting his father.
- Interrupted Declaration of Love: Perhaps. Fred is clearly going to acknowledge Wesley's feelings in one way or another before Knox barges in on them.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Wesley tells Fred to go with Knox to take her home.
- Jerkass: Roger Wyndam-Pryce belittles his son in every conversation they have, coldly refuses to shake Angel's hand when he offers it, and abuses Team Angel's trust to hijack Angel's free will and enslave him. This was all done by a cyborg impersonator, but Wesley's total lack of surprise at any of this strongly implies that the real Roger is little better.
- The Klutz: Wesley walks into the door jamb, then bumps into a co-worker, a sign that his Season One clumsiness is returning in the presence of his father. Gets taken up to eleven when Wes accidentally triggers a bomb.
- Lame Comeback: Spike's new soul tends to inhibit his snarking on occasion.Roger: Spike.Spike: (grinning) You've heard of me?Roger: No. We've met. 1963. My colleagues and I fell upon you slaughtering an orphanage in Vienna. Killed two of my men before you escaped.Spike: Oh... how've you been?
- Left Hanging: We never find out who the cyborgs were working for or whether the Watchers Council really has been resurrected, thanks to the early cancellation of the series.
- Mind Control: "You're using the Staff of Devosynn to take Angel's will, make him your slave."
- Mooks: Dante and Phillip, for Emil.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Wes stunned expression after shooting his father. Even when Wes finds out he's shot a robot, he's still left pondering whether he shot his father to protect Fred, or out of hatred for the man who bullied him all his life.
- Neck Snap: A cyborg inflicts this on Emil after wrapping a chain around his neck.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Cyborg Ninja Assassins. And one of them can also hide himself inside a glamour.
- Once More, with Clarity
- Orphaned Punchline: Wesley asks where his father's gone to. Fred says she left him back at the Entertainment Division with Lorne...and then realizes the horror of that statement. (Description Cut to Roger facepalming in agony)Lorne: ...so I am covered in cherries, the police are just pounding on the door, and Judi Dench starts screaming, "Oh, that's way too much to pay for a pair of pants!"
- Parental Betrayal: Roger Wyndam-Pryce claimed to be assessing Wesley for readmittance to the organisation that's succeeded the Watcher's Council, but he was actually planning to take control of Angel.
- Patricide: Wesley seemingly shoots his father when he makes a move towards Fred. Doubly subverted though as not only does Wesley vomit his lunch up immediately afterwards but it turns out it was actually a Cyborg pretending to be his father. Wesley is also further horrified when Angel and Spike try to comfort him, by sharing the times they killed their parents
- Perp Sweating: Wes gets to demonstrate just how Darker and Edgier he's gotten since his dad last met him, when interrogating a cyborg by twisting the sword stuck in its gut.
- Post-Modern Magik:Roger: In my days we fought werewolves, vampires, the occasional swamp man. And now we have protohuman cybernetic chain fighters.
- Read the Freaking Manual:Wesley: I'll stay with the bomb, try to defuse it. It could be our only— (the cyborg's device stops beeping) What did you do?Roger: These symbols were, in fact, Dutrovic in origin, not Moracian, as you surmised. When interpreted correctly, these symbols spell out the proper procedure for handling the cyborg's power core, including this fail-safe, in case someone trips the self-destruct device. Quite simple really.
- Robosexual:Fred: [about the cyborg] This thing really blurs the line between human and robot.Spike: Aha. So you're not ruling out that a human being could have boffed a robot. [Everyone stares at him] Sex with robots is more common than most people think.
- Robotic Reveal: After Wesley kills his father, the latter is revealed as a robotic replica.
- Sarcastic Confession: Roger asks his son why he Cannot Spit It Out regarding his feelings for Fred.Wesley: The last girl I was with I had to chop into little tiny pieces because a higher power saw fit to stab her in the neck.Roger: (Glasses Pull) You don't want to discuss it. Fine. But spare me the sarcasm. It's too embarrassing.
- Pet the Dog/Shoot the Dog: The first regarding the second: Although he can't say it, Angel finally comes to forgive Wesley for his role in the Connor affair.Wesley: The perception is I'm weak. That's why they went for me.Angel: They're wrong. You do what you have to do to protect the people around you. To do what you know is right, regardless of the cost. You know, I never really understood that. You're the guy who makes all the hard decisions, even if you have to make 'em alone.
- Shout-Out: When Spike finds out that Wesley was Head Boy, he mockingly calls him Percy.
- Super Window Jump: Angel comes crashing in through the window to help Wes and Fred when the arms deal goes wrong.
- Swiss-Cheese Security: Roger tells off Wesley for keeping his source books for Tome of Eldritch Lore on his table where anyone can get them. Wesley retorts, "Gaining access to this building isn't easy." Err, really Wes?
- Tap on the Head: Wesley's dad hits him with a blackjack.
- Technicolor Science: The cyborgs give out impressive arcs of blue electricity when they get stabbed.
- That Came Out Wrong: Feeling guilty after Angel tears strips off him, Wesley tries to apologise to Fred.Wesley: I should've done a better job protecting you.Fred: (stares in disbelief) What?Wesley: That didn't come out...Fred: Do you realize how patronizing that sounds? Protecting me?
- Too Much Information:Spike: Don't know if you know this, but, uh... I killed my mum. Actually, I'd already killed her, and then she tried to shag me, so I had to—Wesley: (holds his hands up in a "stop" motion) Thank you. I'm...very comforted.
- Treasure Chest Cavity: Roger smuggles a pistol into Wolfram & Hart inside the cyborg that Team Angel brought back for examination, removing it while he was supposedly 'defusing' the bomb.
- Unusual Euphemism:Emil: It comes down to trust. There's no Better Business Bureau for what we do. Customer complaints are dealt with through... killing, torture, beating... sometimes...fire. We call it "word-of-mouth advertising."
- Unwanted Assistance: Angel and Spike try to empathize with Wesley by talking about their respective pasts, in particular how they killed their parents.
- Verbal Backspace: The lights go out while Eve and Spike are in the elevator.Spike: (whispering) I know what this is. (yelling) You'll never take me to hell, Pavayne!
(Emergency lights come on in the elevator and an alarm sounds. Eve gives him a look.)Spike: (embarrassed) Oh. Well, that's just something I say... when, uh...it gets dark. - Vertical Kidnapping: One of Emil's mooks gets yanked up into the rafters by a chain.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: Wesley expresses shock at shooting his father by shambling in a daze over to a nearby air conditioning unit. This is followed by the sound of him retching.
- Walk-In Chime-In:Wesley: (staring past Fred) Hello, father.Fred: Oh, yeah, that's mature. Well, I wish I was your father. I'd tell you to grow up.Roger Wyndam-Price: It doesn't work. I've tried.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Wesley goes through the same rigamarole with what turns out to be his father's Evil Imposter. But the impersonation was perfect, because Wesley's real father is that bad — both as a father and as a ruthless asshole.
- Wham Episode: It's revealed just how drastically Wesley's changed from his introduction. He's gone from a stuttering, smitten, stickler for rules to a man whom his father points out is working for the enemy, and who ends up gunning down his father without hesitation when the man threatens Fred, to Wesley's own horror. When Fred offers up that Wesley must've known deep down that his father was a robot, Wesley corrects her, saying he was absolutely certain he was killing the real deal. In most other series this would've lead to Fred acknowldging the depths of his affection for her, but not here. Wesley spends the final moments of the episode awkwardly trying to talk with his abusive father, who angrily and dismissively admonishes his son for calling him at such an early hour.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Angel's reaction to Fred being wounded, despite the fact that she's hardly in a safe occupation. Afterwards Eve points out that maybe Angel is still angry over Wesley betraying him re Connor.
- The X of Y: The Staff of Devosynn
